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I have a Ducati 350.
As far as I can tell it was made in either 1973 or 1974.
I assumed it was made in Italy, because it says "Made in Italy" on the timing side cover.
But I've heard that later model singles may have been made in Spain.
Is there some way of knowing its actual country of origin?
Could it be they were partly made in both countries?

The Spanish 350’s I’ve seen in Australia had plastic timing gears and the cylinder was square ish also moto plat ignition

Graeme

Hi Jordan

I'll add the following few more details:

Any forgings like rockers and conrods with LAF forged into them are Spanish. Italian Forgings have an R or a diamond on them.

Italian engines have cast iron clutch baskets, whereas Spanish widecase are forged steel. The steel baskets are shiner and ring when flicked.

Spanish manufactured widecase heads have higher fins above the exhaust port and the castings follow the shape of the cam end cap like all the narrowcases. Late Italian widecases are more "slab" faced across this face, much as the desmos.

These "Spanish" widecase heads also have fairly undermined seats at the bottoms of the ports, IE you can see the back of the seat when looking in the port.

Other components like gearbox gears, cylinder castings (not all are square, only later ones) etc are visibly different, but only to those who probably get to look at a lot of them.

The trouble is nowadays so many engines have been mixed and matched over the years, it's often difficult to determine age and origins of an engine by one or two components.

Nigel

Many of the widecase Spanish built Ducati singles had Made in Italy on the timing cover, even some of the late Ventos and Forzas, although by about 1978 the timing covers usually had Made in Spain cast into them.
The clutch inspection covers only had Ducati cast into them, with no Made in Italy cast underneath the Ducati. This was the case for all Spanish machines from the early narrowcase until the end of production.
The square shaped cylinder barrel was only fitted to the widecase Vento/Forza/Strada models in 1977 onwards, and a few of the Road 77 250 narrowcase bikes in 1977 and 1978.
There are a number of differences to the chassis on the Spanish bikes, depending on the model.

Post a few photos of your bike to give us all a better idea.

Jon

Jordan wrote:I have a Ducati 350.
As far as I can tell it was made in either 1973 or 1974.
I assumed it was made in Italy, because it says "Made in Italy" on the timing side cover.
But I've heard that later model singles may have been made in Spain.
Is there some way of knowing its actual country of origin?
Could it be they were partly made in both countries?

The simple answer to your questions, 'Were components made in both countries?' and 'Were some Bologna bikes mixed-and-matched?' is, 'Yes'. The general consensus is that this applies to 'springer' engines from around 1971 on, notably the 250s but at least some 350s. On the other hand, neither the 450s nor any of the Desmos were ever made in Barcelona.

I can't comment on the reliability of the 'Made in Italy' casting on the side cover. As Jon Peglar has pointed out before, Barcelona engines that went into Bologna-assembled bikes came stamped 'DM' for Ducati Meccanica rather than 'MD' for Motorans Ducati. So I can't see that fitting a 'Made in Italy' side cover would have caused many problems .

However, certainly for late bikes (a definition which may include yours), as well as the points Graeme makes*, there are few external differences, notably in the castings. The heads are one example:

* Late Bologna bikes were also fitted with Mototrans ignitions.

When the bike came to me it was incomplete, missing its cylinder head and cylinder.
So no clues available there.
Thank you for the info, folks.

Please pardon the bump, I recently encountered a DM250 case, yet there was no M1 or M3 to go with it, allegedly its a mid 60's 250 narrow case.

An acquaintance is letting me have first refusal on it, how legit is it because I'm struggling to (quickly) find info regards its potential lineage.

Cases stamped M1 or M3 were only Mach 1 or Mark 3 engines. All other narrowcase 250’s were simply stamped DM250. If DM250 is on the right side case, it’s an early 4 speed. DM250 on the left case is a late 4 speed or 5 speed.
Matt

To add...



Thanks DD, am struggling with getting an image up, how do I tell if its a 4 or 5 gear please?

Go back to the “Ducati singles main discussions” page. In the “search this forum” box enter “ 4 speed cases” and search this topic. There should be a number of discussions on identifying 4 speed vs 5 speed cases.
Matt